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UP PUCL State Conference

The UP State Conference was held on October 08, 2006, at Varanasi, in which around 50 delegate from various Districts participated.

In the start of the conference, lamp was lit by Justice R B Mehrotra, Ravi Kiran Jain, Chittranjan Singh, and K K Roy. A welcome song was sung by local cultural unit.

The inaugural session was presided over by Justice R B Mehrotra (Retd.) and the President of the State branch Ravi Kiran Jain was the Chief Guest. As per the programme schedule, Dr K N Bhatt of the G B Pant Institute of Social Science, Jhunsi, Allahabad gave a detailed lecture on decentralization and development as Human Right. He also presented a paper which was distributed to all the delegates. He discussed the various development models and gave example of State of Kerala in implementing the decentralised mode which gave amassing results.

Speaking on the Human Rights situation UP, Chittranjan Singh lamented the functioning of the State Human Rights Commission and said that the entire State machinery has became anti Human and brutal and there is a need of forging larger unity for fighting Human Rights abuses by the State machinery.

Kanchana Singh of Varanasi gave a vivid picture of fake encounters going on in Varanasi and Uttar Pradesh. She said that in the name of controlling criminals, the police is killing persons in cold blood which is a serious challenge for Human Rights organizations.

K K Roy spoke on the challenge which the organisation is faced in the last years. He gave example of many broad and bold initiative taken by the various District branches and said that if the organisation has to grow faster, the State leadership must have a close relationship with all the branches.

Ravi Kiran Jain gave a detailed description of various provisions of law and Constitution and said that if democracy has to survive and the people have to have control over resources, a decentralised planning has to come, who from with the active participation of people at large. He said that in the past, the PUCL has done some important intervention on various issues but we have to make some concrete plan and choose some specific areas where the concept of decentralisation for development kind be implemented.

Ram Bhushan Mehrotra speaking as the President – elect thanked the local organiser for holding a successful conference. He said that the PUCL should try to use the various fora where Human Rights issues can be raised. He also said about the functioning and some limitation of the State Human Rights Commissions. Justice Mehrotra warned that in future, the PUCL has to faces bigger challenges as the State machinery is becoming brutal day by day and there is no respect for democratic values in the ruling class.

Tanveer Ahmed Siddiqui (Banaras), Sunit Singh (Allahabad), Akhilesh Sinha (Ballia) gave reports of the activities of their District branches.

The session of the conference was conducted by Shri Gurinder Singh. In the last, Justice R.B. Mehrotra again thanked the delegate and participate for the achievement got in this conference. – Om Dutt Singh, General Secretary